Upside to lost timeslot: no worries about turning off core listeners

In the Loop, a Minnesota Public Radio show that reviews the week's news with seriousness and satire, has lost its Friday evening time slot. The show, hosted by Jeff Horwich, will continue as a digital-only podcast and blog. In a posting to Facebook fans, Horwich described some "upsides" to the decision: freedom from deadlines and from worries about turning off "your typical core 55-year-old public radio listener" and "the traditionalists in our own company." The Twin Cities Daily Planet published Horwich's explanation to Facebook fans in full and compared the show to the Bryant Park Project, NPR's short-lived experiment in targeting a "generally younger, less stodgy audience" with multimedia elements and interactivity. Announcing In the Loop's disappearance from MPR's airwaves, News Director Chris Worthington said the station must continue to cultivate new audiences and create on-demand programming. "To do that, we must commit talent. In the Loop has a track record of attracting new audiences and getting them to interact with MPR."